Reb, having bunked down on our couch last night, left us to do some 'life admin' as she calls it so we did some wandering around the streets nearby. This included Piccadilly Rd, Regent St, Oxford St, and Saville Row to name a few. We were back to our apartment in time to share Trish's 'picnic hamper' from Harrods. The intention was to have a picnic in Hyde Park, then it changed to Green Park because that is closer, then the final decision was to have a picnic in Trish and Grant's room. Afterall, we needed plates, coffee plunger and cups, and it was all too easy to stay put. The food was beautifully displayed on the dining room table before we demolished it with a grand finale of deciding which of the three deserts was the winner on the day (the citron marshmallow won with 3 out of 4 votes).
The afternoon was spent once again wandering around the shops. It was very busy, and quite chaotic in some of the shops because everyone seems to have sales on at the moment. Later in the afternoon Reb joined us and we walked to Claridges for high tea. It started off fighting through a bunch of photographers who were busy snapping away at some well known people walking out of Claridges into waiting taxi's. Michael and a photographer nearly tripped up over each other. The celebrities were none other than Kelly Osbourne, and her mother Sharon. Reb thought that was pretty cool.
High tea at Claridges was excellent. There were approximately 30 different teas to choose from, and you could change your type at any point. The women serving us was well informed about the ins and outs of tea, and how it should be drunk. There is more to tea than what you think. Along with your first pot of tea (or coffee if you are Michael) we were served with a tray of sandwiches. There was, of course the traditional cucumber, but also ham, egg and rocket, chicken on walnut bread, and a few others (three of each so we could try all of them). I don't know what they do to these sandwiches but there was something special about them, they were sensational. This was followed up by choosing a different tea selection, and being provided with a tray of about 5 different pastries (again three of each). Needless to say there was far too much food, although Reb did her best to try most of them. I forgot to mention that there was also two sorts of scones, with jam and clotted cream as well.
We were offered a 'doggy bag' which we took up their offer and what we didn't manage to eat was beautifully packaged up and put into a bag to carry out. The whole experience took about 1 1/2 hours although you could take as long as you liked. We farewelled Reb again as it was Friday night and she had friends to catch up with. None of us are dinner later that evening.....
We arrived back at our apartment at about 7.30PM in time to catch up with Trish and Grant, and Lisa and Kev, who had just flown in from Italy. They helped with emptying some of what was left in the doggy bag. By 8PM we wandered up the road about 50metres and popped into the Ritz for a drink. I had thought that Claridges was pretty swanky, but the Ritz is something extra special. We had one drink here (hellish price) before heading off for the others to have a pub meal. We were unsuccessful in finding a pub that they others could eat at, so we ended up in a resturant which was two floors below street level.
With having eaten food from Harrods, high tea at Claridges, and a cocktail at the Ritz today it was a bit of a posh day!
No comments:
Post a Comment